4.1%
North East unemployment rate
Oct 22-Sep 23
twelve-month period
A higher rate than nationally
England excl. London: 3.5%
-0.6 pp
decrease in latest year
England excl. London
no pp change
6.7%
South Tyneside (highest rate)
Northumberland lowest
3.6%
Key facts about the data:
- The latest North East unemployment rate was the lowest since the start of comparable data in 2004/05
- the England excluding London rate was lower than the North East's but the gap was the smallest since 2004/05
- the North East rate was the fourth highest among the eight core city areas
- each of the seven North East local authority areas had an unemployment rate that was higher than or equal to that of England excluding London
- the highest rate was in South Tyneside, with the lowest rates in North Tyneside and Northumberland
- at constituency level, the highest North East unemployment rate was in South Shields.
Unemployment by age and sex
3.3%
North East female unemployment rate
Sep 22-Oct 23
England excl. London: 3.2%
-1.5 pp
decrease in latest year
North East female rate
4.9%
North East male unemployment rate
Oct 22-Sep 23
England excl. London: 3.8%
+0.2 pp
increase in latest year
North East male rate
Key facts about the data:
- The latest North East female unemployment rate was the lowest since the start of comparable data in 2004/05
- the male rate was higher than a year earlier but lower than in every other year since 2004/05
- the latest female rate was lower than the male rate, in contrast to a year earlier, when the reverse was true
- both female and male North East rates were highest among 16 to 24 year-olds
- the male rate was lower than the female rate for those aged 35 to 49, but the reverse was true for the other three working age groups
- the largest net decrease in unemployment in the latest year was among females aged 16 to 24
- however, the largest net increase was among males in the same age group.
About the unemployment rate
The unemployment rate measures the proportion of the economically active population who are out of work and actively seeking employment. Therefore, the total number of economically active people is a sum of the employed and the unemployed, with the remainder of the population classified as economically inactive.
The definition of unemployment used in the ONS data on the evidence hub is internationally agreed and from the International Labour Organisation (ILO). This defines unemployed people as being in one of the following groups:
- without a job, have been actively seeking work in the past four weeks and are available to start work in the next two weeks
- out of work, have found a job and are waiting to start it in the next two weeks
If someone is not working and does not meet either criteria they are classified as economically inactive.
As a headline rate on the evidence hub, we use the unemployment rate of the adult population – those aged 16 and over.
